Toyota has commenced bookings for the Urban Cruiser from toady which can be booked at Toyota dealerships or the company’s official website for Rs 11,000. Reports say the launch is scheduled for September 22.
Toyota has opened bookings for their first sub-compact SUV in India today, called the Urban Cruiser. You can book the Toyota Urban Cruiser at any Toyota dealership or even at the company’s official website and the booking amount has been pegged at Rs 11,000. According to reports, the launch of the Urban Cruiser is scheduled to happen on September 22 and deliveries are expected to begin from October.
The Toyota Urban Cruiser is essentially a badge-engineered Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza but this time, Toyota has showed more effort than they did with the Glanza-Baleno affair. Although the changes are only to the ‘soft’ plastic parts, it brings about a noticeable difference in the look of the car. And despite no sheet metal changes, the Urban Cruiser does a great job in looking like a mini Fortuner. The twin-slat grille with its angular chrome frame is clearly inspired by the Fortuner and so are the fog lamp housing on the lower bumper.
The fog lamp housings are rather large and lend some visual bulk to bumper with prominent cuts and creases. There’s also an in-built faux bull bar and faux silver skid plate down below which makes the Urban Cruiser look a tad bit more rugged than the Vitara Brezza. Toyota is also offering a new dark brown color on the Urban Cruiser that’s not available on the Vitara Brezza.
We were expecting some changes to the headlamp, but that remains identical. In fact, all other surfaces on the car remain exactly identical to that of the Vitara Brezza, including its rear styling. On the inside, there are no changes in the design or the features offered. The Urban Cruiser will however come with a dual-tone dark brown finish to the upholstery compared to the Brezza’s grey and black layout. The infotainment system will also feature Maruti Suzuki’s SmartPlay Studio system that offered in all other Maruti Suzuki cars and also the Toyota Glanza.
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Under the hood, the Urban Cruiser will be powered by the same engine as the Brezza. It will thus have the 1.5L, naturally aspirated, four-cylinder petrol engine that produces 104 PS and 138 Nm of peak torque. Gearbox options will include the same 5-speed MT and 4-speed torque converter automatic. Toyota will however offer the mild-hybrid system with both the transmission options on the Urban Cruiser. In case of Brezza, only the AT variants get the SHVS technology. The manual variants of the Urban Cruiser will thus have better fuel economy than those of the Brezza while fuel economy for the automatic variants of both cars will be identical.
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Toyota is expected to have fewer variants for the Urban Cruiser than Maruti Suzuki has for the Vitara Brezza. Just like the Glanza, the Urban Cruiser is also expected to have a lower ownership cost than the Vitara Brezza. Toyota is expected to offer a 3year/1,00,000km warranty, as opposed to the 2 year/40,000km on the Vitara Brezza. Having said that, the Vitara Brezza is not its only competitor, but it will also have competition from the Hyundai Venue, the Tata Nexon, the Mahindra XUV300, and the Ford Ecosport. Also upcoming are the Kia Sonet, the Nissan Magnite and the Renault Kiger. Perhaps no other car segment in India is as crowded as this currently.